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Huacatay Black Mint Tagetes Minuta Seeds
Big packet of 100+ seeds which is plenty to get you started!
Its a great plant this one, very hardy, and quite a delicious herb in its own right.
The flavour is a blend of basil, mint, citrus, tarragon and it goes great on mild flavoured dishes like risotto or meats like chicken and fish.
Makes a fantastic pesto, great for spreading on tortillas or sandwiches, and equally good mixed into pasta or boiled potatoes. Very popular in in many parts of the world particularly Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico, where it is sold in little jars as “black paste”.
Doesn’t loose its flavour/aroma as quickly as other herbs can when dried and is easily stored in a jar or resealable packet in the cupboard.
Also great for an aromatic tea that’s “antifungal”, “antibacterial” “liver cleansing” and “vitality boosting” and just bloody delicious!
Companion plant with just about everything, but especially useful for growing with beans and other annual climbers. Just wait till the huacatay is about knee high, then shove a couple beans or whatever around the bottom of each plant.
The natural insecticidal properties of the huacatay protect them from bean fly and nematodes, and at the same time provide a living trellis for the beans to grow up! They are tall straight plants, just perfect for trellises and tomato pyramids.
While I am on the subject of insect control, I bet you didn’t know that this fella, “Tagetes minta” is the “marigold” all the companion planting and natural insecticide studies were done on back in the day! All those folks on TV and books saying “marigold” is a great companion plant, and proven to protect other plants from insect attack blah blah blah, well unfortunately, they only have it half right….
There is a great insecticidal marigold, but its not the pretty little orange and yellow flowered “Tagetes patula” that they all seem to think it is!
This is it, “Tagetes minuta” or small flowered marigold, NOT “Tagetes patula”, despite what the well meaning “experts” insist…. Check it out yourself.
This fella gets 1-3m high but only 30cm wide, and kind of looks like marijuana from a distance.
Nothing like the one in the shops.
If you have ever grown one of those ornamental marigolds you will have seen for yourself how many different insects love to eat them, so it amazes me this myth keeps being perpetuated. Nothing wrong with “Tagetes patula” mind you, just don’t expect it to do much apart from look really pretty. I sell a lot of other Tagetes Species seeds, all of them cool in their own ways.
Anyway, back to this fella.
I always grow heaps as its so handy for garden stakes and we make an awesome spray from the excess huacatay we grow. We eat the younger shoots and tips till it gets a woody stem, then plant more so we have a constant supply. Its the best insecticidal spray to kill fruit fly, caterpillars, aphids and various sap sucking insects around the garden, bar none.
Even kills grasshoppers if you get them when they are still small, which even most of the toxic commercial carcinogenic chemical concoctions won’t!
Here is a LINK to our spray recipe.
So there you go, great culinary herb, perfect companion plant especially for small vines due to their tall straight growth, and the best natural bug spray you are gonna get bar none!
Grown by us organically, no nasties, no chems, no problems!!!
